WESTLAKE TIRES cause $1600.00 in damage to 297RSTS travel trailer

[Ronsrn]

I just put on a set of 12 ply tires they appear to be solid. Just returned from a 300 mile trip. Will def check torque. The one thing that I would like to mention is that I live in Arizona and the sun beats these things to a pulp. I’ve spoken to people to change their tires every 2 to 3 years. I’ve also had the unfortunate incident of a tire blowing and causing damage.

[JKellerJr]

You may want to re-think this.

Moving to a G rated tire was a good idea but running them 20+ lbs underinflated is not a good idea. Your tires should be at 110psi when "cold".

Why is that? Its 110 psi MAX. You don't have to run them at that. You will lower the max weight they can carry but it's fine to run lower pressures. You can get a table from Sailun which will give you those numbers. I run mine at 95psi cold.

[bertschb]

Why is that? Its 110 psi MAX. You don't have to run them at that. You will lower the max weight they can carry but it's fine to run lower pressures. You can get a table from Sailun which will give you those numbers.

My point was you should not lower your tire pressure because tires heat up during travel. If you need 110psi cold based on your loaded weight, you don't start at 85 because your tire pressure will rise 25psi once traveling.

[JKellerJr]

I understand what your saying now.

and absolutely agree

[cdaranga]

I have a 2019 reflection 297rsts. We camped last year from mid June to the end of September for twice a month for four days each. We starting camping this year in June, and made it only to September on the Westlake Tires. We had just purchased a tire pressure and heat etc. monitor. Just about to install it. We had a front passenger tire event, and it damaged the back right tire too. We expect a statement from Good Sam Tire and Hazard Premium Insurance that the tires are damaged due to manufactured defect. I see pictures on the forum that look exactly like our most damaged tire. The tread just tore off right on the road at 55 miles per hour. The other tire had a separated belt which was not there that morning. My husband religiously inspects the tires, and the tire pressure. This one tire did damaged to our travel trailer. Amazing that it took off the wheel panel, twisted fiberglass and tore the undercarriage. The repair cost $1600. I have RV insurance but they are not willing to pay the total bill. That stuck us with additional costs to our deductible. Why we were discussing the problem with them, they issued a check anyway. The Grand Design Dealer we used happened to be 27 miles from our accident. The dealer cut their hourly rate from $150 to $135 but the insurance company still wouldn't pay the full amount. They felt it should not take 10 hours for the repair.
We are so disappointed with this Grand Design Dealer for more than one visit issue, but they are the closest to us, 1 1/2 hrs. away. We have decided never to let them deal with our vehicle again. I have tried to complain to Grand Design in the past and I was told they don't have any responsibility to intervene etc. on any repair issues. This dealer had our travel trailer from October last year until February 2021 or so this year. We asked to have some warranty work performed and they refused at first to submit photos to Grand Design etc. I complained, and made myself such a pain in the _ _ _ that their newly promoted warranty guy finally submitted pictures. We ended up getting the item replaced. My point is, I continue to get stuck between this dealer and Grand Design or this dealer and the Insurance Company.
We have decided to take the travel trailer to Alabama and have a Grand Design Dealer repair it there. They are about 2 hours from us. Just pathetic but those Westlake Tires did that much damage, and the dealer wanted money and the Insurance said no. We were the ones that got taken in the end. I do plan to submit a claim to Westlake Tires. I find it irresponsible that Grand Design continues to put these tires on the trailers. We basically had less that 4000 miles on those tires. No excuse! We didn't get more than 7 months out of those tires. I am amazed that years and years of complaints and nothing changes.
The reason they use Westlake Tires, availability. They mass produce them so travel trailer companies use them. Like EVERYONE ELSE, we removed all five tires and have them replaced. We spent over $600 to have Maxxis 8008 tires put on the travel trailer. We decided to spend to get great tires. We should never have had to do this. I actually read the complaints and encourage my husband to replace the tires last year. I asked our dealer if they could change them out for other tires when we purchased the trailer. Well, they don't handle tires at all at this dealer. So, we didn't get them changed out when we purchased the trailer. My husband had hoped to get two seasons out of the tires, based on complaints. That didn't happen obviously.
WARNING to everyone else. REPLACE the Westlake tires NOW before this happens to YOU!!! $1600 in damaged to the travel trailer due to a tire shedding its tread. Westlake should pay for all the damage! I am in agreement with others on that fact. I didn't cause the damage. That tire did. Westlake should be liable. I will get money for two tires out of them for sure. However, by the time I am done, I will have paid out almost $1000.00 for deductible on RV repair, plus money insurance company would not pay, plus replacing five tires. No one should have to do this because terrible tires on placed on Grand Design trailers, and Grand Design knows this.

First off I am sorry you had to go through this. We had the same issue. Tires with just 3k miles on them 12 months since purchasing the camper new blew and inflicted over $1500 in damage NOT INCLUDING any tire repair or replacement. We just replaced al 5 tires with G rated 16 inch ones. That wasn't cheap either. No insurance since our deductible is $1k and we just didn't want the increase in insurance that follows. Our hope was to make it with the Westlakes for 18 months or so but it looks like that is too much to ask. What I really wish GD would do is design the trailer so that it does not suffer this much damage and if it does it should be easier/less costly to repair. I am sure they have engineers perfectly capable of doing this.
BTW, I check the tire pressure before we drive anywhere and inspect them at every stop. I don't know what else one could do. TPMS could potentially help with pressure leak detection, but in our case the thread separated causing the tire to blow. the TPMS would have alerted me of the obvious "Your tire just went to S**t!!!". Well thank you very much, I kind of figured it out myself since the trailer is swinging trying to throw us off the road and the loud boom and tire chunks flying everywhere!

[YaDerHey]

You gave your husband great advice!

I replaced the "E" rated Westlake Tires on my Reflection the day I picked it up. Many people do the same. Some take chances and see how long they can run them. Sorry to hear about the damage. That would make me sick. BTW, basically all RV manufacturers use cheap tires for their less expensive (e.g. <$50k) RV's. Grand Design is now using Goodyear Endurance and "G" rated Westlake Tires on many of their models now. Those are both excellent tires.

How can you tell the difference between the E rated and G rated tires? Where on the tire does it tell you? My Westlakes say "speed rating L", and "load range D". Not sure if either of these is what you guys are talking about.

[larry0071]

How can you tell the difference between the E rated and G rated tires? Where on the tire does it tell you? My Westlakes say "speed rating L", and "load range D". Not sure if either of these is what you guys are talking about.

Than they are D, not E or G. You likely have small bumper pull trailer? An E comes on my 15,000 gross fifth wheel. I would likely replace with a G. If you are going to replace yours, go with the heaviest load rating (most margin) you can fit. Go up a size if you must.

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[D2Reid]

How can you tell the difference between the E rated and G rated tires? Where on the tire does it tell you? My Westlakes say "speed rating L", and "load range D". Not sure if either of these is what you guys are talking about.

It's the load range, A-H. The further down the alphabet the more weight it can carry.

You have to do quite a bit of digging to find factual information on the proper way to inflate a tire. In the end you just have to decide for yourself what works for you. I have been using Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)for over 10 years. I have been able to observe tire pressure while driving in a wide variety of situations. I have even watched the tire pressure increase until a tire blew (140 psi). In the end I inflate all of my tires to the Max Cold PSI when the temperature is around 70f. My 110psi tires run around 120-125 when running in reasonably cool temperatures. If they get above 135 I start looking for trouble.

I definitely would not start out a lower PSI. I have stopped and let pressure off of tires. This practice is highly frowned upon.

As far as tire damage goes, my damage amounted to $3500 when my Westlake tires separated. The funny part was the one that came apart and beat the trailer up never deflated, it was then it knocked the stem out of the tire behind it that I got an alert on my TPMS. Westlake warrantied the tires, I got about $300 back from them. Insurance paid most of it.

I have had enough problems with tires and suspension systems that I don't mess around, I put Goodyear G614 "G" rated tires. They are expensive. But I tow heavy, thousands of miles each year, they stand up to the abuse. It took me 6 months to get the damage repaired, a lot of that was me waiting until I got close to the one year warranty limit. I scheduled warranty and tire damage with the dealer that purchased from way in advance. We spent a couple of weeks emailing pictures back and forth so they could have the parts available when I finally brought it in. I also got the warranty items repaired at the same time.

[Skiddy]

How can you tell the difference between the E rated and G rated tires? Where on the tire does it tell you? My Westlakes say "speed rating L", and "load range D". Not sure if either of these is what you guys are talking about.

As noted above, load range D is typical on the smaller Imagines and XLS Imagines. An ST D range tire is rated for 65MPH and about 2500 pounds of load typically at 65psi inflation cold. Your L tire is 75mph the way I understand it.

IMO GDRV use of Westlakes on the <8000 pound GVRW trailers is fine, I’ve never heard of an issue. GDRV did equip some units up to 15000 pound GVWR with E rated tires which is seriously under engineered IMO. Most of the larger 5ers are on the road overloaded with a tire barely suitable for unloaded vehicle weight, a virtual game of Russian roulette. Horrible when anyone has a tire failure and has to pick up the pieces and cost.

I wonder if DOT standards for towables would help?